Angolans protesting disappearances attacked, detained

Angolan authorities forcibly broke up a peaceful protest on May 27, 2013, denouncing the enforced disappearance of two activists a year ago, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch also expressed concern at the lack of a credible investigation into the disappearances.

Uganda: Monitor offices under police siege

KAMPALA, 20 May 2013 – A free press is an essential part of a democracy. It is not a luxury. A free press holds the powerful and the wealthy to account. It asks questions. It investigates. It defends the weak. The press is not perfect.

Defiant journalist tells of Zimbabwe police intimidation tactics

Journalists in Zimbabwe have never had it easy. The Mugabe regime has a history of arresting and detaining reporters it believes are guilty of crimes such as “undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency”. 

Mail & Guardian, 08 MAY 2013, SARAH EVANS

Police beat journalists attending court case in Mogadishu

Somali police attacked and obstructed more than a half-dozen journalists who were seeking to cover a rape trial in Mogadishu on Saturday, as authorities continue to struggle in meeting law enforcement and free expression demands in sexual assault cases.

South African Police Minister says journalist was wrongfully arrested

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has admitted that the arrest of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika was wrongful.  “This was a full-frontal assault on the freedom to report on corruption and it is comforting that the minister has acknowledged the arrest was wrongful,” Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley said.  

FAIR members scoop South African Newspaper Journalism Awards

FAIR members  Stefan Hofstatter, Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Rob Rose, based at Sunday Times investigations, walked away with three awards for ‘Shoot to Kill: Inside a South African Police Death Squad’.

Angola’s Police Silence the Media

LUANDA, Mar 13, 2012 (IPS) – Rights groups and activists are warning of a rapidly deteriorating political climate in Angola following a police raid on a private newspaper and a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. On the morning of Mar. 12, 20 computers were seized from the offices of the outspoken Folha 8, one of Angola’s few remaining private publications that is critical of the government, under a warrant investigating “crimes of outrage against the state” and violations of press freedom.